Two-day Johar festival concludes in Haldwani

BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, November 15

A two-day festival of migrant people from the Johar valley of Munsiyari subdivision of Pithoragarh district concluded in Haldwani today. Traditional Johari culture and cuisine were displayed during the festival.

The Johar Sanskritik Aum welfare society organised the festival, which was sixth in the subsequence.

Haldwani Mayor Jogendra Rautela had inaugurated the festival yesterday. He said the valley was rich in adventure tourism, medicinal plants and culture, and was being exposed through this festival, which would guide future generations of the hill region from self-reliance point of view.

“Our society is a small society, having great achievements despite a population of only 15,000 Shauka people in the Johar valley. We have four Padma awardees and several sports laurels, our society has produced the first surveyors in the name of Nain Singh and Kishan Singh, who surveyed the entire land route from Tibet to Mangolia in the time when even excess to that area was impossible,” said Dr Sher Singh Panagti, an eminent scholar from the Shauka society of Johar.

The elders of the society urged the youth to get attached with the proud past of the society and remember that after the Chinese attack of 1962, the entire trade with Tibet was wiped out and thousands of Johari families became jobless. “But our people showed that those who know flying can’t be stooped from reaching the sky,” said Sher Singh.